1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a buffer management system provided in an information processing apparatus, and more particularly, it relates to a method and apparatus for managing a buffer pool effectively so as to avoid a failure, for example, a deadlock or an abnormal operation, of the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information processing apparatus, for example, a facsimile apparatus, has at least one buffer pool and a buffer management system for managing a buffer pool. In general, a buffer pool is used as a temporary storage to hold transmission/reception data, a control program and the like. Usually, a buffer pool is divided into a plurality of buffer areas, each of which is managed by the buffer management system. In an information processing system, it is necessary to avoid a failure, for example, a deadlock or an abnormal operation in order to utilize the buffer pool effectively.
The present invention has an improved structure as to the buffer pool and the buffer management system so that it is possible to avoid various failures.